5 January 1915 - 14 September 1944

Ivan Grachev was born in Frolovo, in the Ryazan region, on 5 January 1915.

He joined the army in 1936 and attended the Kacha Military Air College. He graduated as a pilot in 1939, just in time to take part in the Soviet-Finnish Winter War flying Polikarpov I-153s with the 26 IAP.

He claimed his first victory during this war when he in December claimed a shared enemy aircraft together with P. Mikhlyuk.

When Germany attacked Soviet in June 1941, he served with the 191 IAP in the Leningrad area. This regiment was at the time equipped with a mixture of I-16s and I-153s.

On 19 July, he was shot down in an I-153 but survived.

In August 1941, the unit was re-equipped with MiG-3s and he was to gain a number of successes in this type.

He claimed a Bf 109 on 27 August.

On 29 August, he claimed a Junkers bomber.

On 11 September, five I-16 pilots of 191 IAP/7 IAK claimed a major success during a combat with Ju 87s south of Leningrad, reporting nine Stukas shot down, including two each by mladshiy leitenants Yegor Novikov, Grachev and Vladimir Plavskiy, and one by leitenant Nikolay Kuznetsov.
Only one of these claims can be verified with German loss lists.

He claimed a Messerschmitt on 23 September.

On 16 January 1942, he was decorated with the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin. On the same day, he was also promoted to lead his eskadrilya.

In April 1942, he was wounded and hospitalized.

When he recovered, he joined the 28 GIAP on the North West Front, where he in March 1943 claimed his 21st victory.

On 5 March 1943, he claimed two FW 190s while flying an Airacobra.

In the spring of 1944, he was promoted to major, leading the 68 GIAP on the 1st Baltic Front. By September, the unit was operating over East Prussia.

On 14 September, major Grachev took off on his 202nd sortie in the Riga area, and was seen to shoot down two He 111s. The Airacobras from 68 GIAP was then engaged in combat with FW 190s in the Rumbula area. Major Grachev rammed one of them over Rumbula and was killed. Fedor Milayev (3./68 GIAP) claimed a second over Rumbula while a third was claimed by Nikolay Magerin south-west of Rumbula.
Grachev is buried in Liyepaya, Latvia.

At the time of his death, Grachev was credited with 1 shared biplane victory and a total of 18. These were claimed on 202 sorties.
During his career, he had also been decorated with the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the Red Star.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1939
	?/12/39		½	Enemy aircraft	Shared destroyed	I-153		Finland	26 IAP
	1941
?	27/08/41		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	MiG-3			191 IAP
?	29/08/41		1	Junkers bomber	Destroyed	MiG-3			191 IAP
?	11/09/41		1	Ju 87 (a)	Destroyed	I-16		S Leningrad	191 IAP
?	11/09/41		1	Ju 87 (a)	Destroyed	I-16		S Leningrad	191 IAP
?	23/09/41		1	Messerschmitt	Destroyed	MiG-3			191 IAP
	1943
?	05/03/43		1	FW 190	Destroyed	Airacobra			28 GIAP
?	05/03/43		1	FW 190	Destroyed	Airacobra			28 GIAP
	1944
16	14/09/44		1	He 111	Destroyed	Airacobra		Riga area	68 GIAP
17	14/09/44		1	He 111	Destroyed	Airacobra		Riga area	68 GIAP
18	14/09/44		1	FW 190 (b)	Destroyed	Airacobra		Rumbula	68 GIAP

Biplane victories: 1 shared destroyed.
TOTAL: 18 and 9 shared destroyed.
(a) 191 IAP claimed nine Ju 87s but it seems that in fact only 1 was lost.
(b) Claimed in a "taran" ramming attack.

Sources:
Aeroram
Barbarossa – The Air Battle: July-December 1941 – Christer Bergström, 2007, Chevron Publishing Limited, ISBN 978-1-85780-270-2
Stalin's Falcons - Tomas Polak and Christhoper Shores, 1999 Grub Street, London, ISBN 1-902304-01-2
Additional information kindly provided by Ondrej Repka.